Work Done 2023

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I scored some free trailer loads of oak and black birch right around the corner from my house. He even loaded it with his mini. I offloaded with my tractor with pallet forks. I didn’t really need much but it was too good a deal to pass up.

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I put in some firewood for a neighbor today, the stack of firewood is 57 inches high, 144 inches long with the splits around 15 inches long, that is the second stack I put inside, both are the same measurements.

That should take care of some of the weight the pasta put on the old frame from the meal yesterday.
 
My day was spent by the outside fireplace, I still had some stuff left from last fall along with a bunch of dead branches that I've taken over this summer. I still have enough dry pine near the fireplace with kindling that it was easy getting it going with fire starters.

The winds picked up so I let it burn down (still had coals) so I poured a bunch of water on it, about 25 gallons. About 10 minutes after I poured the water on the fire, the winds stopped.

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I’m a little behind on processing wood this summer. Between the rain and the heat the first part of the summer was uncooperative.

I have about a cord of oak bucked and ready to split. Then my neighbor stopped by and asked if I wanted his oak that was just taken down. Then my tree service guy asked me if I wanted a load of maple that he needed to get rid of ( he’s been good to me when I needed wood and needs to make sure I returned the favor when he needed to get rid of wood). Then my other neighbor told me he’s having his black walnut taken down. I still have to process it all, but that should be enough to cover the rest of year three and all of year four for me. Busy weekends for me trying to catch back up.
Still time to relax at night with my bride in our backyard fire pit.

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The wife ask me if I would clean this top up which I did today. I took a total of four loads (three pictured) out of the small gully. Three loads were cherry and the fourth was birch.

I still have a good weeks worth of work just off the gully in certain areas left. I did get some smaller rounds of cherry and ironwood out of todays work.

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I cleared this area out today of all the branches that were there and since the scales only said 200 this morning, I made some Cinnamon Swirl Raisin Bread tonight, the wife liked it so that was nice.

Another rotten birch came down on a dead pine from that heavy rain the other night.

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It was nice and cool this morning (59) so I used the trail mower on the trails and the lawn. Once that was done I had lunch, checked the trail cams and then cleaned the saw I've been running when cleaning up the house lot.

We have some rain coming in later this week so hopefully one of the trees that are hung up will come down tomorrow or Wednesday.

Since the pine hasn't been up for a full year and our summer was pretty much all rain, I checked the moisture content on the pine we'll be burning this fall and next spring. I didn't split any after testing it.

The pine I tested was either dead standing or in log form from 2018 that I c/s/s starting last winter and this spring. Out of the 15 face cord that we have stacked, 13 was stacked starting this spring.

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I split some of the round I had in between taking my helper swimming yesterday. A few weeks back I ended up getting 4-5 truck loads of hickory and maple out of my brothers property. I haven't had a chance to move it yet it seems to want to rain everyday. I'm hoping for a few dry days this week.
 
Even though I had cleaned the outside and the inside pipe this spring about a month before we were done burning, I took the SootEater to both the outside/inside again today, not much came out. I'll need to replace a roll pin that came out just before the end of last year, maybe the door gasket, put the fan on the back of the wood stove (the dealer installed a new reostat) and clean the ashes out from overtop of the secondary tubes and firebricks.

After I was done with the above, I cleared out a bunch of pine needles from a gutter on the garage.

Once I came inside it was time to cleanup and then have lunch. After lunch I saw the wife was getting ready to go outside, I went back out and cleaned some windows and screens.
 
It's time I start going on this downed maple again, I started working on it and then the hot weather hit us first and then the rains came, seems like I've been doing smaller jobs since.

I'll be cleaning out the back of the rhino tomorrow and have everything set for Sunday. I think that I've only brought home two loads of some smaller stuff since I started cutting on this.

Most if not all that has been limbed up and then I started cutting from the top back.
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Been chipping away at the pile of ash. Slowly filling up the last shed. Almost half full.
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Started filling up some bins with locust. Burning season will be here before you know it.
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Found a bargain on Facebook marketplace……..the big dump trailer and the smaller trailer
to finish what we couldn’t get on the dump. It figured close to 5 cords of 2/3 oak and the rest poplar.
Not crazy about poplar but for $400 not complaining.

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oday I put the new Battery Tender Ring Terminal Cable on the tractor and charged it up with the new 3 amp Battery Tender ( the older battery tender from Advance Auto got smoked when lightning hit close to the garage this summer) I also changed the outer air filter since I had the front off.

My second job was cleaning out the back of the Rhino and make sure some saws are ready for tomorrow, that's all done. Every time I looked out of the garage and saw that it was sunny, I said boy it sure would be nice if I was cutting up in the woods.........and then the dark clouds moved in and it rained hard for five minutes and then stopped, that happened four times today. A bunch of old gloves were tossed along with some old rags and then I took a small whisk broom to the bed of the rhino.

My third job was to start cleaning off the garage work bench (junk holder) I cleaned up the right side of it and a bunch of stuff from the floor. I looked at the three point sander and had that full of stuff, one brand new cover, one older cover and some other stuff that got tossed so that's ready except for a greasing and checking the gates, they might need some adjusting.

My next job on a rainy day will be cleaning off three storage shelves in the garage, I did start cleaning the top one today, the stuff I never use got tossed. We'll need more room this winter for the trail mower and a few other things on the back wall so part if not all of the workbench will go or be used inside for storage the wife wants for food in the basement.
 
The Birch that came down was hung up on a Pine, that came down yesterday when I was working in the garage. When we received 3.25 inches of rain, it brought it down on the pine.

Today I bucked up this downed Maple mother nature took care of (I think it was last December) I'm pretty sure there are 20 or 21 new rounds from todays work.

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Today I split all the rounds I bucked up yesterday. Picture 3935 are the rounds I rolled up when I started, 3936 might be what was left from the first batch, 3937 is the second batch of rounds I rolled up and 3938 is the last of the rounds I split, 3940 and 3941 is the pile of Maple splits from the work done today and the last is from where all the rounds were.

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I cleared that downed Birch from across a trail today and then stacked just over a face cord of the Maple I split.

When I was stacking, the smell of stuffed peppers made its way out back, add some spaghetti sauce with pasta and the boss had a great meal ready.

The first picture is the trail finally opened back up, the next two are some Birch rounds, 3948 is the split Maple left, 3949 is the last load today, 3950 is the Maple I stacked and the last picture is the stuffed peppers.

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I finally got the wood shed all filled with 3 cords, all ready to burn. All went well until I went to dump a wheelbarrow full of splitter trash on the burn pile. Yellow jackets had made a nest right where I dumped. They weren't happy about that. I got stung by a few of them. First time that has happened in years.
 
The last time I posted about felling this standing topped off Beech was May 2, 2023, since tomorrow is supposed to be a crappy day, I plan on felling & bucking this up before the end of the week. Hopefully there is some nice solid firewood that will come from it.

Once everything is bucked up and if it's solid Beech, I'll haul the splitter up the hill with hopes of making a nice size pile before I haul it home.

After I get the Beech stacked, it will be back to the Maple I've been b/s/s. After I get the area I'm stacking wood in filled up, we'll have room for two or three more face cord and it will be full. Usually our hardwood areas will hold a total of 66 or 67 but this year I stacked three face cord of pine in the hardwood area for a total of 15 face cord of softwood for the shoulder season.

Since EAB has been in our county, I've been felling Ash but not much last fall or this spring, hopefully I can fell some this fall.

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We had heavy rains today so I'll give that hill the Beech is on a day to dry out, tomorrow I'll work on what's left of the Maple top.
 
I did some cutting on the Maple I've been working on today and then rolled everything up near the splitting area. I took a walk around looking for more downed trees, this Beech is the biggest I found.

I did take a small load of Maple down the hill and stacked it.

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I finally got the wood shed all filled with 3 cords, all ready to burn. All went well until I went to dump a wheelbarrow full of splitter trash on the burn pile. Yellow jackets had made a nest right where I dumped. They weren't happy about that. I got stung by a few of them. First time that has happened in years.
I got stung last Sunday by them (3 times). Was fine that day/eve. By Tue it started to itch like a mosquito bite. Today is Thur and all good. I have been stung many times, very strange.
 
I'm not sure what's going on with my card from the camera but the pictures I took today won't show up on the card, it's only loading 95 percent of what's on it.

I finished the second face cord stack of Maple from the part of the tree that came down, I also started to add Maple to another two face cord stack that isn't finished. I still have more in the woods that will come down after the hot weather leaves.

I scanned the card but everything was fine and I just removed a ton of pictures from it earlier this week, any ideas on how I can run a fix on the card?

After taking the dog for a walk, I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures in the area that I finished or added some splits to.

The last rack in picture 3972 is the one I finished today and 3973 are some splits I added to that stack. I did take before pictures today but nothing came out.

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Got back up to the Northwoods about 11:00 this morning with the Mrs (instead of last night because she got stuck at work yesterday...). First time up since 4th of July. Hauled about a face cord worth of good hardwood shorties that will fit the Stratford II nicely (mostly white ash with a little sugar maple, elm, hickory & beech). Better stuff than the cherry and birch I have up here. Have it all stacked in the basement. Hoping to buck up the logs I hauled out of the swamp last winter and move them up to the splitting area. Might be a challenge with the heat in the forecast... Also hoping to get the rest of this winters stash into the basement.

Gotta get the rest of the mowing and trimming done so we can fish off the pier until dark and have a late dinner.